


Nowhere to Be

by BoxOnTheNile



Series: Storm [6]
Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fae, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Recreational Drug Use, those are some fucking tags aren't they, vague allusions to torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-22
Updated: 2019-10-22
Packaged: 2020-12-28 12:24:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21136664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BoxOnTheNile/pseuds/BoxOnTheNile
Summary: "Boss, please tell me I didnottext you while higher than a goddamn astronaut.""I would be lying if I did."





	Nowhere to Be

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this sitting in a junk doc for..... a while? Months. At least July. I've had this bit of backstory planned since early June. I should be working in the Samhain fic for this au but... I don't wanna.
> 
> Title from How We Do It by Lights and by this point I am begging you to look her up.

Alana is prepared for almost everything when she gets a typo ridden message in the team group text, from hangovers to Daniel being stuck in his true form.

She's not expecting him flat on his back on the kitchen floor, staring up at his ceiling. 

Kepler strides past her to grab a tiny plastic baggie with half a tablet pill inside from the floor. "Mister Jacobi, would you care to explain?"

"Don't work today," he sighs. It's slurred and more heavily accented than he normally allows. "Said it was Xanax. Not Xanax."

Alana... Doesn't really know what to think. "You bought pills from someone?"

"New," he says. Then, more insistently, "_New_."

Kepler kneels next to Daniel to take his pulse. "I understand."

"I don't."

"It's a fairly common phenomenon among immortal beings," Kepler says. "They start looking for anything they haven't done yet, to the point of endangering themselves. With the... New information we have about Daniel's age, I was starting to expect this."

Daniel sits up sharply to hold Kepler's face. "You should... Everything is so much, you. You should fuck me."

"Oh, Dan, gross!" Alana complains.

"No," Kepler says firmly. 

"Ugh." Daniel drops back to the floor. He zones out again almost immediately. Kepler returns to monitoring his pulse. Alana shuffles hesitantly to his other side, and he focuses again long enough to put his free hand on her chest, right over the feather that gave her life. "I feel it, you know," he whispers, like he's telling a secret. "It's mine."

Alana looks at Kepler, wide-eyed, and back to Daniel. "What?"

"They trapped me. Hurt me. Stole my feathers. You have one they took." He smiles drunkenly at her. "Worth it. You're worth hurting for. I just wish I could..." His hand slips as he goes down again into whatever haze he's in.

"Mister Jacobi," Kepler says, his voice tight. There's barely suppressed fury, and Alana shares it. Daniel's fear of cages is suddenly much more founded. "Daniel."

"Hm?"

"Who trapped you?"

"Oh. Gone." He waves a hand. "Long time ago. Won't go back to Japan though. Not ever."

They make eye contact again. The only reason none of them are working today is because Jacobi threw a fit about a mission to Japan, refused to go, threatened to flat out quit if they tried to force him. Eventually, Kepler gave it to another Intelligence team and... Well, Alana isn't sure what happened between him and Daniel, but there was banging and yelling and Dan came out with a black eye and just. Disappeared. For two days, until the keysmashed message twenty minutes ago.

"How long is a long time ago?" Alana should probably feel bad about using Daniel's high to get answers, but she doesn't.

"Threeee," he drags out the vowel. "Hundred? Yes." He reaches for her again. "You..." He trails off, snaps back to attention. "You're too good to be from me. How are you...?" He's staring at her with so much love and awe. "Worth it," he says again. "Worth it."

And he dips under again. 

"Doctor Maxwell, is there any way you can figure out what he took?"

She shakes her head. "I'm a good alchemist, but that's not part of my skill set. Xanax. Xanax is an anti-anxiety sedative, sir, he... Was he that scared?"

Kepler has no answer. They sit in silence for a while, Kepler's fingers against Daniel's wrist. At least an hour later, Daniel twitches and groans. The hand in Kepler's grasp tries to move, and when it meets resistance, he goes still. 

Then the tension drains out of him. "Boss, please tell me I did _not _text you while higher than a goddamn astronaut."

"I would be lying if I did."

"Amazing," he deadpans. "Can I have my hand back?" Kepler lets go, and Daniel flings his arm across his eyes. "Holy shit, I think I taste dragonbane. What the fuck did I take?"

"Not Xanax," Alana says. "Your words, not mine."

"I am going to kill that shady motherfucker," Daniel says, but there's no heat to it. "As soon as I figure out what that was, because it was—" he stops. "I should not continue that sentence with my literal boss here."

"A little late for that," Kepler drawls. "You not only requested my presence while 'higher than an astronaut', you asked me to sleep with you."

"Mm, yep, I'm just gonna walk into traffic," Daniel says. "Because I remember none of that! And I'm mortified!"

"You don't remember?" Alana asks.

"Last thing I remember is the reprimand, being pissed about it, and some shady asshole in an alley telling me Xanax would take the edge off it all and I figured, well, haven't done that one before, why not." He frowns. "Did I say anything else?"

Alana opens her mouth to tell him, but Kepler is faster. "No," he says. "Nothing coherent, which is unsurprising. You've been under for about forty-eight hours."

"...Huh. I probably took enough to kill a human. Oh, but if it was laced with dragonbane, that's a power suppressant, that would change things." He blinks a few times, closes his eyes. "I'm still on the floor. I'm not quite certain where my feet are."

Alana scoops him into her arms. He's so light, always has been. He squawks and wiggles a little, and Alana is ready to put him back down, she can't _imagine_ what he might be remembering right now, but he settles and wraps one arm around her neck. "Good there, Peacock?"

"Good," he mumbles, and passes out.

* * *

Kepler and Alana don't make any plans out loud, but they change things. Reorganize the furniture in the offices to make the space more open, leaving clear paths to doors and windows. Kepler even stops _touching_ him without warning.

He notices. Of course he notices, he's too smart, too _vigilant_ not to, and that _constant_ awareness makes so much sense now. 

Her Peacock has been on edge since before Kepler climbed out of Hell. No wonder he kept his wings hidden so long.

But he notices.

The next time Kepler calls him name before touching him, he whips around, eyes flashing with fury. "Okay, what the fuck? You've both been acting weird for weeks, and I can only assume it's because you're afraid I'm going to fuck myself up again, but I'm _not_. So you can stop whatever this is. I didn't take those because you hit me, I took them because—" he cuts himself off. "Because they were new."

"And because you were afraid," Kepler says. 

"I'm not afraid of you!"

"Peacock," Alana calls. She presses a hand to her chest. "You. You told us. Where it came from."

He looks hurt for a second before his face clears of any emotion. "I'm not a liability," he says, after a moment. "I fucked up once, a long time ago. It won't happen again."

"Of course it won't," Kepler says. "Because I won't let anyone touch what is mine."

Daniel looks at him, eyes full of hope and devotion. It's a look Alana has seen on people when talking about their gods. "What?" he asks breathlessly. 

"You are _mine_," Kepler repeats. "And anyone who puts their hands on you again won't live long enough to regret it."

Alana surges forward and wraps her arms around Daniel. "Why didn't you _hate_ me?"

"I didn't know, at first," he murmurs, hugging her back as hard as he can. "But when I knew it was a Phoenix feather, well. I'm pretty sure most the feathers in whatever circles alchemists run in are still mine, anyway. So I… sorta reached? And it was mine, I could tell. And then… how could I? How could I hate someone who fought for freedom as hard as I did? How could I hate _you_?" He sniffles. "I could… if it hadn't been so _long_, I could've… reconnected. Stabilized your soul. Given you a piece of mine. But I _can't_, and I'm so sorry."

"You could've what?" Alana asks. "Given me part of _your soul_?"

"Of course," he says, like it's obvious. "I'd give you the Sun if you asked for it."

Alana meets Kepler's eyes over Daniel's shoulder. His expression is nearly unreadable, but she thinks it might be _envy_.

Daniel damn near worships him, but her Peacock _loves_ her.

“Daniel,” Kepler says, and he begrudgingly releases Alana to face him. “Is there anything else we need to know? Anything else that could affect missions in the future?”

“No, sir,” Daniel tells him, but there’s the barest hesitation in his voice.

“_Jacobi_.” 

“There’s nothing.”

Alana doesn’t think she really believes him.

**Author's Note:**

> ::finger guns:: find me on boxonthenile on tumblr and @nile_speaks on twitter. I've been yelling about ADHD Eiffel on Twitter on and off for weeks so if ur into that...


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